Investments by PEZA locators up 104% in first 2 months of 2014

MANILA — Investments registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) in the first two months of this year jumped 104.39 percent over the same period last year as investors, who failed to register in the last two months last year due to the typhoon Yolanda tragedy, finally registered early this year.

PEZA Director-General Lilia B. De Lima told reporters at the “Idea Global Entrepreneurship Symposium 2014” in Mandaluyong City that investments in the January and February, this year totaled P35.437 billion which is higher than the P17.338 billion in the same period last year.

De Lima said the surge in investments in the first two months of the year was largely due to the registration of projects which were supposed to come in the last two months last year but had been postponed because of the Yolanda disaster.

The Yolanda tragedy even reduced overall PEZA investments in 2013 by 11 percent.

De Lima said PEZA continues to stick to its 10 percent investments growth target for this year.

She reported that exports in 2013 went up by 7.12 percent to $42.873 billion from $40.024 billion exports in 2012.

Exports by PEZA locators accounted for 76 percent of the country’s total commodity exports. These were generated by the 3,183 operating ecozone locators in its 300 ecozones across the country.

Employment has also breached the one-million mark to 1,048,351 or 14.94 percent higher than the 912,047 in 2012.

Meantime, De Lima reported that her recent investment mission to Japan has yielded new investments in manufacturing sector particularly electronics, automotive parts, shipbuilding and aerospace.

The Japan mission, which was organized by the Sumitomo-Mitsui Banking Corp., was an opportunity for De Lima to meet with Japanese business people in Tokyo, Osaka, and small prefectures in Japan, which accounts for the huge amounts of manufacturing investments in the Philippines. (Manila Bulletin)